March, 2016

We saw BATMAN Vs SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE today. When I was a boy and on into my early-mid teens, I read a lot of comics, especially Marvel. . .DC seemed a bit square in those days. I had turned my back on Batman because of the Adam West TV show, and Superman, too, was pretty dopey then. It did occur to me that someone should make a non-campy, more serious Batman and Superman. I used to visualize how it would happen. (The guy who made it happen was Michael Uslan–you can see his credit on all the newest Batman stuff, indeed going back to the TIm Burton one–he basically bought the rights to Batman *cheap* after the Adam West debacle. He rescued Batman.) And in those days there were many forays into Superhero Vs Superhero. Spiderman and the Human Torch got mad at each other and fought. The Hulk and The Thing had a tiff. Make your own list. They’d get mad for no particularly good reason and fight for no particularly good reason but *comics fans enjoyed it* because it was *fun*. It looked cool graphically, and it satisfied an itch comics fans had. (And that’s basically what Captain America: Civil War appears to be, Cap vs Iron Man)…Soon I got out of superhero comics, until The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. Those graphic novels impressed me, especially Watchmen. My nostalgia about superheroes was rekindled, up to a point…

So when I saw the Batman Vs Superman movie was coming, I figured it was the same sort of hero vs hero marketing gimmick and appeal to fun–and it was and is–and I looked forward to it. I could tell early on that it was going to use some of The Dark Knight Returns. And it does. And I did not expect too much of it. . . Also clearly it was a set-up for the Justice League. And I was into that. And people forget that’s part of what it was.

The movie is uneven. I did not think it was the mess some other people thought. But I didn’t think the whole thing worked in every particular. It’s not the epic film it hoped to be. Still, I would say that if there was a category of film criticism that allows two and three-quarters stars, just short of three stars, it is that. Actually I enjoyed it a good deal, so maybe that’s up to 3 stars. Wonder Woman might deserve her own “star” in the rating…

Of course, one problem with superheroes fighting superheroes is: if they’re so heroic and good, why are they fighting? Are they drunk or something? So there has to be a rationale. They tried hard on the rationale for this one–I will say it’s better than the rationales that appeared in the comics, because they built it up a good deal. People reacting to the movie may be forgetting that Batman doesn’t know much about Superman at this point, in this particular story continuum. There *was* a kind of invasion from Superman’s planet, in Man of Steel, and Superman’s battle with the supervillain in Metropolis did do a lot of damage and did, presumably, hurt a lot of people, as a side effect. Not really Superman’s fault but people blame him for it. Some moviegoers –and the studio reacted to it, in this new movie–and some fictional characters in Batman Vs Superman were down on Superman because of that. So in the context of all that, and people acting like Superman was a God, and giant statues of him looking rather fascistic in public squares, and Lex Luthor manipulating both Batman and Superman to pit them against each other…the Batman /Superman fight is just believable enough. People also forget that this is a set up for Justice League so it’s not supposed to answer all questions.

The thing is, if you’re a fan of “adult” (and one really needs those quotation marks) superhero stories, this film has some great set piece scenes, an excellent Batman scene…the demonic “Bat” of Gotham rescuing sex slaved women, for example…and those scenes are very good realizations of the more “adult” and non-campy use of superheroes.

To me, the movie –though two and a half hours–was well paced, didn’t seem too long and largely came together pretty well. It was cogent enough for a strong momentum, and for me to follow a bit more than the gist. BUT…there were things I didn’t like, and I can’t really talk about them now–except to say they’re toward the end and I thought they were over the top and they were emotion-milking and they seemed a bit absurd to me. Do not want to say more, too spoileristic. I will say that the inserted (felt that way) scene with the Flash talking from some possible alternate future, and Batman’s apparent vision of an ugly alien haunted world to come, was confusing and, though it sets something or other up…maybe it shouldn’t set up whatever that is. Anyway it disrupted the flow of storytelling and confused a lot of people. (I didn’t even know that was the Flash till I read it later.)

I had no problem with Ben Affleck as (remember!) an *aging* Batman. He was perfectly fine. He’s a good actor. And I had no problem with this new version of Lex Luthor–in fact I dug it. The production *had* to do a Lex Luthor that contrasted with the one from the other Superman movies, and anyway as this one is the ultimate tech bro and I dislike tech bros, well, that’s a meaningful contemporary villain…I thought the guy acted that character really well…

On balance I thought it was definitely worth the price of the ticket; I enjoyed this Batman, I loved Wonder Woman (she was actually in several scenes) but–the production committed the same sin all vain, overpaid teams of writers and producers and directors of blockbuster films commit now, perhaps because they face the challenge of offering more, more, more all the time…the sin is putting in more, more, more. They just put too damn much in these big superhero films, and they need to learn how big and powerful is not too much. They’re like that Jon Hamm character at the beginning of Bridesmaids where he’s slamming it to the girl in bed, really hard, as if to impress her and she’s rolling her eyes…Dude, there’s such a thing as too much.

Bottom line is, expect a lot from contemporary superhero movies, but don’t demand too much, or they’ll do too much; and don’t expect perfection, because hey, it’s a superhero movie. Are myths perfect? Does the story of Jason and the Argonauts have to be perfect? These are modern myths, as Michael Uslan pointed out. Long as they’re reasonably grown-up in style…just enjoy them. That’s what works for me.

Frequently a fantastic claim is made–whether for alien abductions, or, in this case, the Shroud of Turin–then it is disproved. Then the fantastic claim is repeated, a few years later, with little or no reference to the facts that disproved it. And the whole phantasm starts over again.

I was recently surprised, reading a new book, an account of Tibetan “rainbow body” tales, to see the Shroud of Turin woven (as it were) into the account, as parallel “evidence”; then saw the Shroud of Turin (Jesus’s supposed burial shroud) evoked at great length in a so-called documentary on Jesus’s resurrection on the so-called History Channel. They repeated old, false claims–for example, that no painter’s pigments were found on the Shroud of Turin image of Jesus. But in fact, “forensic tests on the red stuff have identified it as red ocher and vermilion tempera paint”. The shroud has been proven fake many different ways–see the link below.

Weirdly, it’s the same with “the moon landing was faked” people–every “how do you explain this!” observation about the moon landing has been explained, or refuted, and quite definitively. The moon landing was proven real from dozens of angles…Yet a couple years later, people blare the same pseudo-facts to “prove” that it was all fake. The same selective memory methods are used to claim the fake is real, and the real is fake!

When I was young I blurted pretty much any joke that occurred to me. I edit myself now. Yesterday I was in a post office and heard a cock crow thrice–no, I’m not joking. I was in line in the post office and a rooster crowed, loudly and clearly, over and over, and everyone was looking around trying to see where it came from. I thought it must be an odd, annoying ring tone. But no, it was explained–as the rooster went on and on–that one can ship birds, and someone was shipping a rooster, probably to someone planning to use it for breeding chickens, and it was in a special box. I thought about making jokes about cleaning up after the cock crows, and I did not. I thought about joking that the post office workers, oppressed by the Republicans, had to have a chicken farm in the back of the office to make ends meet. That would have annoyed people too–didn’t say it. Just pondered, First time I ever heard a rooster crowing in a post office, and is it a Biblical sign? Will someone again betray Jesus…here?

Other day I was in the Walgreen’s drugstore, surprised that someone was putting out bags of candy Easter eggs already. I looked at this hen-shaped little guy and wanted to say, “Maybe you should be clucking as you put those out.” I did not say it. Don’t want to hurt his feelings.

We have wild turkeys round here, making a gargling laughter sort of gobbling sound in our area, and two flew over the house–yes they can fly, not very high or far– a large male after a small female. The gobbling soon started again. I Dr Doolittled it, and told my wife the guy was saying, check out my plumage, let’s get down, girl, and the girl turkey was saying, I’m not getting pregnant this year, I’m going to relax and eat insects, and he said, come on baby, and she said, No, I’m not going to fall into that trap again–

Saw DEADPOOL tonight. The opening credits alone are worth the price of a ticket–they were hilarious. Produced by “some douchebag’…directed by an “overpaid tool” and so on…that made me laugh more than I have in a comedy in years. The movie made me laugh a lot–on purpose. It is so pop-cultural referential that you’ll laugh or smirk or elbow your friend twice as much as me if you get all the references, perhaps three times as much. But we got enough, and enjoyed the snarling snark-masterful humor and Ryan Reynolds’ delivery so much, we laughed and were entertained all through. Potty mouthed? You bet. R rated? Probably good reason.

Violent–oh my God. It’s written by people who seem not to take violence seriously…but I doubt that’s the case. We’re all so painfully aware that we’re (at best) living in an archipelago of little islands of relative peace in a world seething with violence and hatred. It’s not that we don’t take violence seriously–it’s that we have to laugh at it as a defense because we can see it, just over there…on the news. Or if you were in Boston or South Manhattan or San Benardino or Sandy Hook or Aurora Colorado or–pick your favorite American mass murder–you might’ve seen it up close and personal..

A strange amalgam of adult sophistication and adolescent humor, exquisite acting and slapstick, Deadpool is a movie that some people will see and dissect over and over. I myself–and I rarely do this–would like to see the script of it. Because I’m still processing one joke or irony when another is leaping at me.

Man is this ever *not* for everyone. And a lot of reviewers don’t get it. But it’s popular and to me it’s great satire–mocking everything superhero–and roaringly entertaining.

I can’t compare it to the comic it was adapted to, because I didn’t read that, but I think I *get* the character. Cool music too.

And by the way–all the talk about Deadpool supposedly being bisexual or pansexual gay-yearning or something? I don’t think so, not at all. Not in the movie version. He’s *joking* about it all the time. Well so does everyone. But this guy is not only very heterosexual, sorry, this is a very hetero movie. That’s neither a good thing nor a bad thing. But whoever started the pseudo-analytic “he’s bisexual” meme is full of crap. They should have a good bisexual Marvel superhero character. Maybe they do. But this ain’t it.

You know, if Quentin Tarantino made a superhero movie, it might be something like this. Though I think it’s more carefully made than his films (I do like his films). It’s influenced by them and maybe, as my wife observed, by the character Ash from the Evil Dead series…only Deadpool is more manic, smarter, and closer to the edge of crazy…